Of the Forgotten
by Certain POV
Summary: A what-if, where Jacen Solo and Danni Quee had gotten together; ties in with Justice Conflict and Deadpool & Onimi.
1. Chapter 1

Of the Forgotten

Chapter 1

Zonama Sekot: 28 ABY

On a beautiful evening, in one of the living world's vast tampasi areas, Danni Quee was studying the native flora with her datapad. Upon arrival of this world, her scientific curiosity was instantly peaked on how a planet could be alive, and she wanted to catalogue as much as she could before Zonama Sekot would have to jump into hyperspace. Surely, a hyperspace jump like this would be disastrous to the living world itself, as some of the older Ferroans had told her what had happened when Sekot had jumped Zonama out into the Unknown Regions decades earlier.

But it had to be done, Danni thought. Too much had already been lost in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, and as one of the first people in the galaxy to have endured their wrath and live, she'd be one of the last people who wanted to see them convert the entire galaxy to their will. What she saw on Coruscant as one of the members of Luke Skywalker's strike team on the world after the Yuuzhan Vong took the planet was but a microcosm of what they could do to what worlds in the galaxy they had yet to take, and what worlds they've already taken.

"Credit for your thoughts, Danni," a familiar voice said behind her.

Danni snapped out of her reverie and turned to Jacen Solo. She smiled. "Not much I can share with you, Jacen," she said. "Unless you decided to get a degree in the sciences, I don't think we can have a fruitful conversation about the biological structure and physical properties of Zonama Sekot's flora."

"But that's not what you were thinking, was it?" Jacen asked.

Danni's mirthful smile disappeared at that. "You can read me like a book, can you?" She sighed, putting the datapad down to her side. "Jacen, I'm scared. I mean, how is Zonama Sekot going to resolve all this? The violence that the Yuuzhan Vong have brought upon this galaxy? And even if there was a surefire way that the Vong can be defeated, how can we be so sure that we'll win? We've lost so much already, I fear the worst."

Jacen approached her, closing the distance until they were centimeters apart. "We will win, Danni," he assured her. "In spite of all that the Yuuzhan Vong threw at the Jedi and the New Republic, they won't take this galaxy. The Force is with us, and that's what assures me that we'll win. It should assure you, too."

Danni smirked. "Oh, Jacen," she said. "Always the optimist, looking to the Force for guidance rather than thinking logically and factually with what's before his eyes."

"My optimism steered me right so far," he said. "Look at what we found." He spread out his arms to indicate the living ecosystem that surrounded them. "For most of your life, you believed this planet to be nothing more than a myth. And you know that the Force is as real as the cells that run throughout your body, and the innumerable molecules that make up a star. You feel it through you, Danni, and you've used it to your advantage in this war. If it weren't for the Force, you would've died back on Helska Four, and you know that."

"I do," she said, nodded, not looking at Jacen directly. Then she looked straight into his eyes. "But even with the Force in me, and all the good it's done for myself and others, like with Saba and the Wild Knights at Arkania and Borleias, I just don't have the same faith in the Force as you or the others do, Jacen. You, Luke, Mara, Saba, Tekli, and the rest; you're all true Jedi, and I'm not. What I guess I'm trying to say is that even with my Force potential, I never will be a real Jedi, Jacen, and even you must know that. I'm a scientist; always have been, always will be. Do you understand that?"

Jacen said nothing at first, and then just looked down at his feet before looking back up into Danni's eyes. "I do understand," he replied with a solemn nod. Then he turned and began walking away.

Danni caught him by the shoulder and gently pulled him back around. "Don't think I'm not grateful for my connection to the Force, Jacen," she said. "Like you said, if it weren't for that, I would've died by the hands of Prefect Da'Gara and his Vong lackeys. And I wouldn't have met you."

Jacen raised an eyebrow. "Danni?"

She titled her head inquisitively. "Do you remember, when we first met, how you saved me?"

"Yes," Jacen replied curiously.

"I'll never forget that," she said. "The fact that you saved my life..." Danni approached him, closing the centimetres between them. "And how you saved it." With that, she kissed him, and he revelled in it.

Three years earlier, Jacen had saved Danni on the Yuuzhan Vong-inhabited ice world of Helska IV via an ore miner borrowed from Lando Calrissian at Dubrillion. Thanks to the sacrifice of Jedi Knight Miko Reglia, who gave his own life against Vong warriors so that Jacen and Danni could escape Helska IV back in the ore miner, the two of them had been tightly pressed together in that cramped space for quite a while whilst a New Republic fleet engaged the Vong forces up in the world's orbit. All that happened between Jacen and Danni in that ore miner was that Jacen let Danni cry on his shoulder as she grieved for Miko, the only other Vong prisoner who was with her while the invaders tortured them.

Now, later that night, in Danni's cabin, more than that had happened between her and Jacen.

~o~

29 ABY

Months after Zonama Sekot had made its hyperspace jump out of the Unknown Regions, it had finally emerged back into known space, specifically the Coruscant system, which was, for now, the capital of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire. The living planet's appearance in the skies of Yuuzhan'tar–the name that the Vong had given to their new capital–had called back the fleet that was battling the Galactic Alliance's forces at Mon Calamari. Zonama had orbited for weeks around the living world while the Yuuzhan Vong remained quiescent, trying to figure out what to do while they were simultaneously being plagued by a heresy among their outcasts whose belief held that this living world would save them from their places.

The Galactic Alliance had taken advantage of the distraction that Zonama Sekot brought upon the Yuuzhan Vong as they retook worlds like Corulag in order to get ready for the inevitable final battle that would take place. In the meantime, after Luke, Mara, Jacen, Danni, and the rest who were on Zonama Sekot the past year had reunited with the rest of their family and friends, many of the Jedi were taking to Sekotan seed partners that would allow them to fly living starfighters against the Vong when they ultimately decided to attack.

Jacen was not among them. And that wasn't because he was immersing himself in the current of the Force via meditations as he usually did.

It was because he was with Danni, sitting next to her in their cabin as they both felt the presence of the life that was growing in Danni.

"I wish you didn't have to go," she said, looking away from her oversized belly to her lover.

" Ne neither," Jacen admitted. "But I have to. I need to see this through to the end. Uncle Luke would expect no less of me, especially since he and Aunt Mara have a son themselves, and they're risking their lives just like the rest of us are."

Danni sighed. "Did Sekot tell you that you have to go?" she asked.

Jacen nodded. "I talked to her about it," he replied. "And I might as well have been talking to Vergere, considering that's who Sekot spoke to me as. I have to do this."

Danni closed her eyes in order to compose herself before she opened them again. "You'll make it back for me, will you?"

Jacen nodded again. "I will. I promise you this. And the baby." He kissed her before there was a knock on the door of their cabin. They broke off their kiss and Jacen called, "Yes?"

"C'mon, kid," the voice of Han Solo, Jacen's father, said on the other side. "The Yuuzhan Vong are heading in. And Luke's gathering up the Jedi for a little speech before we all have to go." Han's voice contained no indication of what he felt about his son having a child just before this war was going to come to its end.

"Goodbye, Jacen," Danni said to her lover. "And may the Force be with you."

"And with you, Danni," he said before he kissed her on the forehead, rose up out of the sofa, and walked out of the cabin.

In spite of the situation, Danni felt reassured that Jacen would indeed come back. Maybe it was her gut instinct, maybe it was the Force, as he said, but one thing was for certain–no matter what would happen, she would have this baby with Jacen.

~o~

The Battle of Yuuzhan'tar had raged. But despite all of the losses on the side of the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi, and their allies, the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated after their Supreme Overlord had died. The remaining Vong forces invading Zonama Sekot had been pulled down onto its surface alongside all of the forces of the Alliance that came to combat them. Those Vong on the surface instantly lost their living weapons in the vast tampasis of Zonama, and Danni, who had been contacted by Sekot during the battle, had been told to deliver this message in the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong's defeat: Sekot had welcomed them home.

Several days after the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, as the Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong who decided to ally with them were collecting all remaining Vong throughout the galaxy so that they could be placed onto Zonama Sekot, those Jedi and their allies who had participated in the battle on Coruscant and around its space finally returned to Zonama. They all reunited with their friends and family after the worries of the conflict that had finally ended the Yuuzhan Vong War, and Jacen and Danni were no exception when they hugged and kissed after the former came off the docked _Millennium Falcon_.

When Danni pulled away from her lover, she noted the physical change in him, as if he had gotten older. "You're okay?" he asked her.

"Yes," she answered before asking him, "What happened to you, Jacen?"

He told her about his fight with Onimi–the true Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong who was using Shimrra Jamaane as his puppet in controlling the empire–and how he had experienced oneness with the Force when he killed the Supreme Overlord. The change in him was all that remained of his experience.

"The rest of the Yuuzhan Vong will be arriving here in the coming weeks," Jacen said, braking out of his brief narrative of his fight with Onimi. "In the meantime, we need to get ready for Zonama's return to the Unknown Regions. I know it won't be staying here."

"Me, too," Danni said. "But do you want to stay here?"

Jacen looked at his lover in wonderment. "What do you mean, Danni?"

"Well, I thought that we would raise this child together, Jacen, but after what you told me about your fight with the Supreme Overlord... I mean, don't you want to stay with the rest of the Jedi."

"I'm not going to do that," Jacen said with a shake of his head. "My responsibility lies with you and the baby. And as much as I want to expand my knowledge of the Force, and maybe achieve oneness with it again, we have to raise this child together, my love."

Tears welled in Danni's eyes. She visibly wiped them away before asking, "So what does the rest of your family say about this?"

"Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara don't mind," Jacen said. "Tahiri and Tekli are coming with us anyway. Jaina's happy for me, and Mom and Dad... Well, they're both happy that I'm at least making a responsible decision in all this. Dad's a little disappointed, though, that I won't be going with the rest of them to Kashyyyk for the celebratory feast after all this is over."

"Well, all we have to endure now is another crossing back into the Unknown Regions," Danni said. "Let's get ready for it."

"Yes," he said. "Let's."

~o~

After all of the Yuuzhan Vong remaining in the galaxy had been collected and placed on Zonama Sekot, the living world blasted off into hyperspace. The following couple of months were just as deadly as Zonama's crossing to the Coruscant system, but in the end, it had returned, though not in the same system as it left; the Bothans still carried their vow of ar'krai–total annihilation–on the Yuuzhan Vong, and they could tap into the Galactic Alliance records to find out where Mobus–the gas giant Zonama had once orbited–was located. This time, it was a completely different system, unnamed, with only a yellow star and three dead planets orbiting it for company. Zonama Sekot added itself as company as the only living companion to that star, settling itself into a comfortable orbit around this sun.

A week after Zonama had settled around the star, and the surviving population–Jacen and Danni included, complete with their unborn child–had begun repairs on their broken homes and burying their dead, Danni's water had broke.

She was rushed over into her cabin with Jacen and a former Yuuzhan Vong shaper, who had been with them alongside several other Vong and Ferroans as they were fitting repairs to their homes, had joined them to act as the midwife. It was a painful set of hours for Danni as she gave birth to her child, but Jacen was with her all the way, providing her support and helping her dull down the pain she was feeling through the Force.

In the end, the former shaper successfully delivered the baby out of Danni, and, after going through the rest of the post-birth procedures, placed the crying infant, wrapped in a makeshift towel, into Jacen's arms. "The baby is a girl," the Yuuzhan Vong told both Jacen and Danni, who was laying on her bed, slicked in sweat.

Jacen placed the baby in Danni's arms, and as she held her daughter in her arms, looking at her with love, Jacen asked her, "What should we name her?"

Danni thought about it for a couple of moments before saying, "Jorielle."

"Jorielle," Jacen repeated. "I like that name. Jorielle it is."

"She'll be strong in the Force," Danni said. "I can it in her."

"Me, too," Jacen said as he knelt next to his lover and daughter to regard the latter with the former.


	2. Chapter 2

Of the Forgotten

Chapter 2

35 ABY: Zonama Sekot

It had been more than five years after the conclusion of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and yet, still the decrees of the previous Yuuzhan Vong rule had dominated the minds of those Vong who were of the former elite castes. Many ex-warriors, subalterns, and the like had refused to live in mixed grashals and villages with former Shamed Ones, who were now formally titled the Extolled, yet they would steal from their villages, a la food and other such resources provided to the former invaders. In fact, Tahiri Veila was currently trying to resolve a dispute between Bava, a member of the Extolled, and Sal Ghator, a former subaltern who had allegedly tried to steal from Bava's grashal, later that day.

Other than that, Zonama Sekot had become a relatively comfortable world for both the Yuuzhan Vong and the Ferroans to live on, if you counted out those aforementioned Vong who still leaned to the traditions of their previous society. And for Jacen and Danni Quee Solo, who had married about a year after Jorielle was born, it was a quiet and peaceful life as they raised their child, now half a decade old.

Jacen and Jorielle were out in the back of their grashal, where the former was training the latter in using the Force, specifically by having her use her telekinetic ability to lift up rocks nearby. She was lifting up several about a few meters into the air each. Jacen was proud of his daughter. Already five years old, and she could easily master the art of telekinesis. Danni was right; she is a strong Force-user, and she would make a great Jedi.

"Very good, Jorielle," Jacen said, controlling the amount of pride he had in his voice. "Now to try to maintain your hold on those rocks in the air for the next thirty seconds. Understood?"

"Yes, Daddy," she said as she did what she was told and held those rocks in the air at the limited altitude she raised them up to.

Fifteen seconds later, the voice came to Jacen's head again. It was a call coming from within the Unknown Regions–far from Zonama Sekot, but close to Chiss space. He, Tahiri, and Tekli had been hearing this call from the Force for several weeks now, though neither Danni nor Jorielle heard this call.

The voice disappeared as quickly as it had appeared in Jacen's head, and he saw Jorielle standing before him, her face curious. "It was that voice again, wasn't it, Daddy?" she asked.

"Yes, it was, Jorielle," Jacen replied. "I need to see your mother... and Tekli and Tahiri. Get back in the grashal. The training session is over. Goodbye."

With that, Jacen turned and left, but he was still able to see over his shoulder Jorielle returning back into the grashal using the backdoor.

A few minutes later, Jacen, wandering the local tampasi, found Danni and Tekli, who were approaching him. The two of them were studying more of Zonama's ecosystem and biology, as they've done for the past half decade following the Yuuzhan Vong War.

"Jacen, what's going on?" Danni asked as she and Tekli joined him.

"It's the voice again," he answered. "Where's Tahiri?"

"Right here," the Yuuzhan Vong-scarred Jedi Knight said as she appeared from behind a nearby boras tree. "Sorry I'm late. The dispute between Bava and Sal Ghator kinda got me a little tied up. So are we all going then?"

"Going?" Danni asked. "Going where?"

"To the source of the call," Tekli answered. "But since you haven't been hearing it, Danni, I think it's a better idea for you to stay behind, at least for Jorielle."

Danni looked from the diminutive Chadra-Fan to her husband. "Has Zonama Sekot agreed to this?" she asked Jacen.

"I do," the voice of Jabitha Hal said off to the side. All of the Jedi turned to her, and they all knew that they were talking to Sekot, who joined their group. "It needs to be answered. And I sense no hostile intent from the voice that Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli have been hearing, Danni. In order for this call in the Force to stop, you three–" Jabitha-Sekot pointed at Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli "–must heed it. You have my blessing to leave my surface for the time being."

"Thank you," Jacen nodded at Jabitha-Sekot. He turned back to his wife. "Take care of Jorielle for the both of us, my love."

"I will," she said with a nod before kissing him.

With that, Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli parted ways from Danni and Jabitha-Sekot, where they headed in the direction of the closest of Zonama's airship ports, about a few klicks away, which would take them to one of the living world's spaceports.

"Danni," Jabitha said behind her as the two women watched the Jedi leave. Danni turned to the other female and knew that Sekot had left her form, leaving Jabitha as her own individual–for now. "I must speak with you."

"What is it, Magister Hal?" Danni asked.

"As you know, I am quite old, despite my relatively youthful appearance," Jabitha said. "I have lived long enough to see even Jacen's grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, when he was but a mere boy, and I a mere child myself. And for all this time that you have spent living on Zonama, since you have first arrived, I had sensed your particular interest in it due to its... unique circumstances. And your presence in the Force is strong. I know you have doubted yourself as a Jedi, and I know as well as you that it is not your fate. Your fate is with Zonama Sekot... as its new Magister."

Danni's eyes widened in surprise. "Me? As the new Magister? I-I don't think I can, Magister Hal."

"Oh, but you will," Jabitha said. "Not now, of course. I still have a few years left in me. But when I die, Sekot will select you as the next Magister."

"But I don't think I can handle the responsibility of governing a whole planet like you can, Jabitha," Danni said. "I mean, it's not in me. I'm a scientist, not a Magister."

"You are a scientist, there is no denying that," Jabitha nodded. "But you only think you don't want this. Sekot wouldn't select you as its next Magister if it didn't sense that deep down within you, you wanted this. And if for nothing else, you would take my position after I have passed into the Force so that you can fully comprehend all that is of Zonama, as was your goal here, was it not."

Danni took a moment before she nodded with, "Yes, it is. But what about the others? Like Jacen, Tahiri, or Tekli?"

"Sekot has foreseen that their destiny is not with Zonama like yours is," Jabitha said. "The coming conflict that will ensue will decide for them that the responsibility is to the rest of this galaxy."

"What coming conflict?" Danni asked.

"The conflict that is brewing nearby Chiss space," Jabitha answered, "where the source of the call is."

"Sekot set Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli into danger?" Danni said with shock. "But why?"

"They are Jedi," Jabitha answered. "It is their duty to confront danger."

"But what about Jacen?" Danni asked. "Jorielle still needs a father! And someone to teach her how to be a Jedi! I can't do that, especially not when I'm raising her alone."

"You are a strong woman, Danni, in spite of what you think of yourself, and in spite of what the Yuuzhan Vong did to you when they finally entered this galaxy," Jabitha said. "You can raise her. Jacen has done all he can. And Jorielle's is of a different path from that of the Jedi Order."

"What, you mean that Jorielle's going to be the next Magister after I 'pass into the Force?'" Danni retorted. "Why is Sekot suddenly deciding the destinies of me and my family?"

"Because it is ultimately your path, Danni," Jabitha said. Her voice took on a more cerebral tone, and she knew it was Sekot who said that, not Jabitha. "You may not see it at first, but you know that your destiny is with me."

~o~

The source of the call in the Force lured Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli all the way from Zonama Sekot to an unknown world that, after they landed on this planet's surface, they learned was called Yoggoy. Its population was of various species, but the primary populace of Yoggoy was of a particular insectoid species that neither of the Jedi had ever seen before.

Upon their disembarking from the Sekotan freighter they took to leave the living planet, the three Jedi had met an escort of several insectoids, who waved them along so that the Jedi could follow them. Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli did as they wished, and followed them on foot through the bizarre-appearing city of Yoggoy for a few klicks before they were led inside one of these buildings.

Inside, the insectoids took Jacen, Tahiri, and Tekli up their version of a turbolift to the building's highest floor. On that floor, the Jedi were led down a long hallway and guided into a nondescript room. Everyone inside that room turned to the three Jedi's entrance.

"Jacen!" Jaina, one of the people inside, called as she rushed up to him and hugged him. As Jacen returned that hug to his sister, he took note that everyone else in the room were his Jedi friends from the tragic but successful mission to Myrkr about eight years before during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Tahiri and Tekli were exchanging greetings and salutations to their friends. The only one he noted was absent was Tenel Ka Djo, who was the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium.

After exchanges all around the Jedi were conversed, with Jacen being the only one among them who noticed that the door that he, Tahiri, and Tekli entered through had closed, and that their insectoid guides were gone, a deep, guttural voice sounded through the room with, "Good. Nearly everyone is here."

The source of that voice stepped in from an open side door that all of the Jedi Knights had just noticed. The individual who stepped into the room wore brightly colored and contrasting trousers, tunic, and cloak, but that wasn't his noticeable feature. His noticeable feature was his horribly burned face that appeared to have smoothed out into albino white. The man's eyes looked oddly familiar to Jacen as the horribly burned figure walked up to the podium centered in the front of the room, so that he could tower above the Jedi as he spoke to them.

"For some reason, Tenel Ka refuses our call," the guttural man said. "And we are sorry to find out that Anakin and Ganner are both dead."

The mention of Anakin and Ganner brought sadness to all of the Knights in the room. Anakin, Jaina and Jacen's youngest brother, had died during the mission to Myrkr, being the last casualty before they succeeded in their mission in destroying the voxyn cloning lab and the Jedi hunters' queen. Ganner later died saving Jacen from the Yuuzhan Vong back on Vongformed-Coruscant, two years before the Galactic Alliance would retake it for itself.

Jacen was the first to snap out of the opened-up grief among his fellow Knights to ask the man, "We? Who are you? And how do you know us?"

The burned man titled his head and seemed to smile, despite the fact that he couldn't really do such a thing due to the texture of his skin. "Jacen," he said. "You, Jaina, and the others among you would remember us as Raynar Thul, but we are now UnuThul."

Everyone's brows widened when they realized that this man was Raynar, one of the Jedi lost during the mission to Myrkr. He wasn't one of them to die, obviously, but he had been kidnapped by the Dark Jedi Lomi Plo and Welk aboard the _Tachyon Flier_. The _Flier_ was a ship that Anakin, before he died, planned to have the team escape on in order to leave the the _Baanu Raas_, the Yuuzhan Vong worldship where the mission to destroy the voxyn took place aboard. However, that plan was foiled when Plo and Welk took the _Flier_ with Raynar, and Lowbacca's M-TD translator droid, aboard, and the team was forced to hijack a Vong frigate that Jaina would later use in the Yuuzhan Vong War as psychological warfare against the invaders, making it appear as if she were their Trickster goddess, Yun-Harla.

"Raynar!" Jaina exclaimed in shock as she looked upon her fellow Jedi Academy attendee. "What in all nine Corellian hells happened to you?"

"Raynar Thul is gone, Jaina," Raynar's guttural voice said. "There is only UnuThul in this vessel."

UnuThul explained what had happened, though he seemed to have left out the part about Lomi Plo and Welk kidnapping him. He told the story of when the _Tachyon Flier_ crashed onto the surface of Yoggoy years earlier, while the Yuuzhan Vong War still raged, and the colony of insectoids, who collectively named themselves Yoggoy as part of the hive mind they shared, had found Raynar Thul as a badly burned survivor of the Crash. The Yoggoy took Raynar in, healed him to the best of their abilities, and then absorbed him into their hive mind as one of them; that was what happened to outsiders when they spent a long enough time with the Yoggoy, and they were aptly named Joiners as a result.

But Raynar Thul didn't become just any Joiner. He became the leader of the Yoggoy; as the Yoggoy absorbed Raynar's mind into the hive, they also absorbed his caring personality regarding even a single individual in the Yoggoy rather than just the nest as a whole. Eventually, as time went on, the Yoggoy gathered up other nests into their hive mind, such as that of the Taat, the Saras, the Wuluw, the Unu, and many others. The Unu was the prime nest, the nest that led all the other nests in what would become the Colony.

The Colony would expand itself through its space in the years that passed. But lately, they have had a border conflict with the Chiss Ascendancy in the Qoribu system, which is just on their frontier. UnuThul had called all of them out here, on Yoggoy, so that he could ask them for their help.

When UnuThul was done explaining his story, Jacen asked, "What happened to Lomi Plo and Welk?"

"Who?" UnuThul asked.

"The Dark Jedi who kidnapped Raynar Thul," Jacen clarified, curious as to why UnuThul wouldn't remember them. "What happened to them?"

"We don't recall any Lomi Plo or Welk," UnuThul said.

At that, the Knights looked at each other in bewilderment, wondering why UnuThul, if not Raynar himself, if his mind was still in that burned body, had forgotten about the two people that had caused him all this.

"Does this mean that none of you will help us?" UnuThul asked.

The Knights were silent for a moment before Jaina spoke up with, "We will help you."

At that, they all agreed.

~o~

As time went by, the Jedi Knights' involvement in battling Chiss scout forces at Qoribu eventually caused the Skywalkers–including their son, Ben–Han and Leia Organa Solo, and Saba Sebatyne to come all the way from their respective locations in the galaxy where they were doing their part to repair what had been destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Following a battle against Chiss scouts, in which Lowbacca went M.I.A., the elder adults confronted all of the young Knights about what they were doing on Qoribu's moon of Jwlio, questioning their actions and ethics in who and what they were fighting for, especially in light of the fact that on two occasions already, the Skywalkers, Solos, and Saba had all been attacked by members of the Colony. This surprised the Knights and their fellow Colony members, and befuddled them when they were told that those that outright attacked them had blue-black chitin. No one in the Colony they knew, not even the Colony members themselves, knew anything about Colony members with blue-black chitin.

They all agreed to a compromise in light of the situation. Jaina, Zekk, and Alema Rar would stay behind to at least find and save Lowbacca out in space–for they knew he was still alive from the battle–while the rest would go with the Skywalkers back to Ossus to test for the Joining connections that they've made with the Killiks–the name of the race of the Colony, as the elder adults discerned.

On Ossus, Jacen and the others had undergone various brain activity tests in order to gauge the connection between them made possible by their time with the Killiks. But it was much later after Han and Leia returned from Qoribu with a severely wounded Saba Sebatyne and a captured Alema Rar. The Solos explained that Alema was a traitor to the Jedi Order who tried to kill them all aboard the _Millennium Falcon_. Not long after that, a blue-black Killik had been fought and captured in the Ossus Academy by Mara after she discovered that it was hiding thanks to Ben.

Of all the tests, the connection between Alema and the Gorog–the name of the nest that the blue-black Killik was–proved to be the strongest. Master Cilghal discerned that this may be so because the Gorog were of the unconscious part of the Killik mind, manipulating events behind the scenes to their will; hence, the Killiks were purposely being led into a war against the Chiss thanks to Welk and Lomi Plo; that information came courtesy of Saba when she was healed of her injuries and explained that she was wounded because she fought Welk–there was no direct evidence that Lomi Plo was still alive though.

Taking all of that into account, Jacen decided that if the Killiks were being led into such a war, they needed some more outside help. While the elder adults secretly allowed Alema and her Gorog companion to leave so that the bugged ship they took would lead the Jedi back to the Dark Nest (the nickname given for the Gorog), Jacen, by the permission of his Uncle Luke, took one of the Jedi Order's latest StealthX ships to Hapes. There, he would convince his old friend, Tenel Ka, to lend the Killiks a little help at Qoribu in the way of a fleet.

They met in one of the palace gardens, where Tenel Ka was sitting on a bench, meditating. Her back was to Jacen as he hid in the shadows provided by the overhead shade of the trees, and he stared down at her as if he was a predator.

"Hello, Jacen," she said, snapping out of her meditation and folding her legs back into a standard sitting position.

At that, Jacen dropped from his hiding spot and joined Tenel Ka in sitting down next to the bench. "Hello, Tenel Ka," he said. "It's good to see you again."

"I feel the same about you," she acknowledged, her tone clipped as usual. They embraced in a friendly hug before they pulled back. "So, I suppose this is not a mere social visit, now is it?"

"It isn't. Tenel Ka, have you heard some kind of call in the Force coming all the way from the Unknown Regions?" Jacen asked.

"Yes. I had locked myself in my bedroom and waited until the call passed. I could not leave my duties as Hapan Queen Mother. I assume that you had heeded this call?"

Jacen nodded. "Along with all the other Knights from the Mission to Myrkr."

"Myrkr? What did it have to do with Myrkr?"

"Do you remember Raynar Thul?"

"Of course I do," Tenel Ka replied. "What about him?"

"Well, he was the source of the call," Jacen answered.

"Really? He's alive?"

"Yes, and to make a long story short, he's leading a civilization of sentient bugs against the Chiss Ascendancy, and we need your help."

"Why is Raynar going up against the Chiss?" Tenel Ka asked.

"Because Lomi Plo and Welk–the Dark Jedi who kidnapped him before Anakin died–are leading him into it for their plans of galactic domination," Jacen said. "It's not for certain though, but that's the best guess the Jedi Order has. Will you help us?"

"I already told you, Jacen, I cannot abandon my post as Queen Mother," she insisted.

"I'm not asking you to, Tenel Ka," Jacen said. "All we need is a small fleet. Can you give us that?"

"Why should I put the Hapes Consortium in conflict with the Chiss Ascendency?" Tenel Ka asked back.

"Because if you don't, you're going to allow an entire civilization be destroyed by the Chiss," Jacen said. "We saved the Yuuzhan Vong from being exterminated by Alpha Red, the Bothans, and everyone else who wants to see them extinct, even with all that cost us. Please, Tenel Ka, as a Jedi, you have to do this."

Tenel Ka looked directly in his eyes. "Very well, Jacen," she said. "I will give Raynar a portion of the Hapan fleet to combat the Chiss. But you will have to do something for me in return."

"And what is that?"

A few seconds of staring at him later, Tenel Ka leaned in and kissed Jacen. Jacen, in turn, quickly broke off that kiss, abruptly stood up from the bench, and quickly walked back several paces away from Tenel Ka.

"You want me to sleep with you, Tenel Ka?" Jacen asked in shock.

Tenel Ka, a look of curiosity drawn on her face, stood up and approached Jacen. "Of course," she said simply. "Why, are you married?" She asked the question in retort. A look of disappointment was drawn on her face when, a moment later, he told her that he was indeed married and even had a five year-old daughter. "Oh. So that was what you did with your time on Zonama Sekot."

"Listen, Tenel Ka, I'm sorry, but this can't happen between us," Jacen said. "I'm faithful to my wife, Danni, and our daughter, Jorielle. I can't betray them like this."

Tenel Ka abruptly turned away as tears began welling in her eyes. She began pacing away and said, without looking over her shoulder, with a relatively calm voice, "Then you can say goodbye to whatever hope the Killiks have in gaining help from the Consortium, Jacen." Tenel Ka walked away slowly, allowing Jacen ample time to reconsider his decision.

After several seconds, during which Jacen knew what Tenel Ka was doing, he conceded with, "Wait." Tenel Ka turned back around and reapproached Jacen as he sighed in defeat and said, "All right, you win, Tenel Ka."

"Indeed, I have," she said as she locked lips with Jacen.

And this time, he couldn't pull away from her.

Even if he wanted to.


	3. Chapter 3

Of the Forgotten

Chapter 3

The Killiks got their help by way of the Hapan fleet Tenel Ka gave at Qoribu, along with the Bornaryn shipping company fleet, given by Raynar Thul's own mother, Aryn, thanks to some persuasion on Tesar Sebatyne's part. These two fleets managed to help counter the Chiss fleet that attacked the Colony-inhabited moons of Qoribu, igniting a titanic battle while Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker tracked Alema Rar and her Gorog companion to the Dark Nest moon of Kr.

When the Battle of Qoribu was over, the Gorog appeared to be destroyed, Welk was dead, Alema was missing, and yet, there were still no visible signs of where Lomi Plo had fit into all this. UnuThul himself had visited the underground caverns of Kr to inspect the Gorog bodies for the rest of the Killiks, and determined that the Colony was indeed being manipulated into going into war against the Chiss. So, in order to calm the flames of rivalry between the Killiks and the Ascendancy, UnuThul agreed to take the Colony far away from Chiss space. Han and Leia Organa Solo volunteered a nebula they encountered when Alema betrayed them, and the Hapans agreed to ship the Killiks over to the nebula for them to inhabit its cluster of planets that the Solos found. The whole process following the battle took over a month.

With the Killik issue resolved like that, Jacen, again, with permission from Uncle Luke, decided to return back to Zonama Sekot to see Danni and Jorielle. He offered Tahiri and Tekli to come with him, but they refused, ultimately preferring to remain with the bulk of the Jedi Order in spite of the homes that Zonama had previously provided them after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended.

Jacen travelled straight back into the Unknown Regions and ended exactly in the system that Zonama Sekot was still orbiting in. He set the ship down on the closest spaceport to his home grashal, where Danni and Jorielle still surely lived, and after setting his StealthX there, he hailed an airship to take him back to his grashal.

When he returned home, the first thing he saw as soon as he opened the front door to his home was his wife, Danni, sitting there on the couch with a blank expression on her face, and her arms crossed across her chest, as she stared at her husband.

"You betrayed me, Jacen," she said with a menacing tone. "How could you?"

She knew. He didn't know how, but she knew. "Danni, listen to me–"

"Leave," she said. "Go back to the rest of the Jedi Order. Jorielle and I don't need you anymore."

"Danni, I–"

"I said leave!" she exclaimed in tears. "Go! Get out of here! Now!"

Without another word, he closed the door on himself, turned around, and simply walked away, feeling as defeated as he felt when Tenel Ka forced him to sleep with her. Jacen decided to walk all the way back to his StealthX and do as Danni said; just return to the Jedi Order as a direct servant.

How could Danni have known?

~o~

"You told her?" Jacen exclaimed at Tahiri as they spoke privately in the latter's cabin in the Ossus Jedi Academy.

"I had to tell her, Jacen," Tahiri said. "She deserved to know. I know you wouldn't have told her. And as a Jedi, it was my obligation to inform her of the truth over the commlink."

_As a Jedi_, Jacen thought. Those words were exactly what he said to Tenel Ka when he tried to persuade her, without sex, to give the Killiks a helping hand. How fitting it should be used against him in the wake of the breakdown of his marriage to Danni. Jacen rubbed his hand over his face before asking Tahiri, "Did you tell anyone else about this?"

"No," Tahiri said. "Only Danni knows. No one else needs to know. And I doubt that Danni would tell anyone close to you. After that, I don't think she wants to have anything to do with you."

"A comforting thought," he said sarcastically. "Speaking of which, how did you know of what happened between me and Tenel Ka?"

"Deductive reasoning," Tahiri said. "I seriously doubted that Tenel Ka would spare a fleet to go up against an ally of the Galactic Alliance's like the Chiss, even if it was to help out Raynar and the Killiks. So I figured she may have needed a bit more persuading on your part. And given how she felt for you–"

"How did you know what Tenel Ka felt for me?" Jacen interrupted.

"Well, after we escaped from the _Baanu Raas_ and you were left behind after you killed the voxyn queen, we felt your presence from the Force disappear altogether," Tahiri explained. Jacen remembered how true that was, when Vergere somehow managed to take away his connection to the Force while he was in captivity under her hands and those of the Yuuzhan Vong. "And though she wasn't with us when this happened, we felt Tenel Ka's anger when it seemed that you died. We all pretty much knew that she loved you from that point on."

"Well, thanks for at least having the courtesy of bringing me in here to tell me that you were the one to ruin my marriage," he said spitefully.

"You were the one who ruined your marriage, Jacen, not me, when you slept with Tenel Ka," Tahiri said. "I only did what was necessary."

"Tenel Ka gave me no choice, Tahiri! She forced me into it; if I hadn't, the Killiks wouldn't have gotten the help they needed against the Chiss back at Qoribu."

"Then ask yourself, Jacen, was it really worth it?" Tahiri asked.

A moment of silence later, Jacen said, "You ruined my marriage because of a theory, something you didn't know directly."

"And you proved it for me in the end, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

Without saying another word, Jacen turned around and left Tahiri's cabin.

~o~

36 ABY: Ossus

Despite what happened to the Gorog on Kr during the Battle of Qoribu a year earlier, the Dark Nest was still alive, and Luke Skywalker himself had confirmed that Lomi Plo was leading it. Now, because of their resurfacing, they took complete control of the rest of the Colony and sparked the Swarm War, a conflict that erupted when the Galactic Alliance decided to form a blockade around their space of the Utegetu Nebula, and which had culminated with the Battle of the Murgo Choke. From this, not only were the Galactic Alliance and the Killiks enemies, but the Chiss were also enemies of both–thanks to the Battle of the Murgo Choke, the Killiks had taken a few Alliance vessels, like the _Admiral Ackbar_, making it appear as if the Alliance and the Killiks were allied against the Chiss.

Because of all these events, Luke Skywalker had called for a conclave on the world of Ossus. Every Jedi in the galaxy was attending in the Academy's vast auditorium as Master Skywalker gave his announcement to all the apprentices, Knights, and Masters present; he was deeming himself the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and told everyone looking upon him that they were to either dedicate their full efforts as members of the Jedi Order, or give up their positions.

Danni and Jorielle, who had come all the way from Zonama Sekot, were among the first to tell Skywalker that they would retire as Jedi because their fates belonged to Sekot. He agreed, and wished both Danni and her daughter a safe journey back to Zonama before Tenel Ka came in so that she could quit as a Jedi.

After that, as Danni exited the auditorium with Jorielle at her side, she felt Jacen's presence them.

"Daddy!" Jorielle exclaimed as she and her mother turned around to face her father. She ran into Jacen's arms and hugged him as he bent down to return her embrace. "Oh, I missed you!"

"I missed you, too, Jorielle," he said before pulling back. "So, you're not going to be a Jedi anymore?"

"Mommy said that me and her just don't have the time," Jorielle said.

"I see," Jacen replied. He stood up from Jorielle and walked around her to have a more private conversation with his ex-wife. Jorielle joined them nevertheless, but it seemed that neither of her parents cared.

"What is it that you want, Jacen?" Danni asked.

"Danni, I haven't seen you or Jorielle in almost a year," he said. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened, and I want to make things right. What happened between me and Tenel Ka meant nothing to me, other than to help the Killiks."

"Whole lot of good that's doing for the galaxy right now, Jacen," Danni said sarcastically, reminding him that it was because of the Killiks that the Swarm War was commencing. "And I know about your other child, too."

"Other child?" Jorielle asked, looking up to her father. "Daddy, what is Mommy talking about?"

Jacen looked down at his daughter. "Jorielle, the reason that I can't be with you and Mommy is because I had to do something that I thought was for the greater good."

"You cheated on her?" Jorielle concluded with shock in her eyes. "Is this what this other child is about, Daddy?"

"Come along, Jorielle," Danni said as she grabbed her daughter by the hand and steered her away from her father.

Jorielle tore her eyes away from Jacen as she and her mother walked away from him, leaving him downtrodden and saddened.

"I hope you will remain as a Jedi, Jacen, in spite of your problems" Luke's voice said from behind him.

Jacen turned to his parents and his aunt and uncle standing there.

"So you all know, don't you?" Jacen said.

"We noted the look that Danni and Tenel Ka shared when they quit," Han said. "We knew that you and Danni had a fallout, but we never figured why. Now we know."

"How could you cheat on her, Jacen?" his mother, Leia, asked.

"The Killiks needed help," Jacen said. "So I looked to Tenel Ka. But she wouldn't help them unless... well, you know."

"We understand why you felt that it needed to be done, Jacen," Luke said. "But tell us. Since Tenel Ka's child is your child, too, what will you do?"

"If Danni can take care of Jorielle by herself, then Tenel Ka can certainly do the same for Allana," Jacen said. "Neither of them need me. I have a greater duty to fulfill in this galaxy by stopping this new war. Or do I sound irresponsible for abandoning all of them?"

"Danni and Tenel Ka are both adults like you, Jacen," Luke said. "And like you said, they can raise their daughters respectively by their own. And personally, while I'm glad that you're still with us to help the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance end the Swarm War, I just hope that you yourself feel like you're making the right decision."

"Well, Danni didn't give me much of a choice after Tahiri told her that I slept with Tenel Ka," Jacen said. "And Tenel Ka and I aren't on speaking terms, considering what she forced me to do. I only met her again weeks ago when she told me over the commlink about Allana, so I came just to see my new daughter. But really, the Jedi Order's the only other avenue that I have left."

"If that's what you feel is your path, Jacen, then it is your choice," Luke said as he turned away to return to the auditorium so that he could speak with the rest of the Masters' Council on how to end the Swarm War. Han and Leia, saying nothing as they stared blankly at Jacen, turned to join.

Mara approached Jacen in two steps and said, "Personally, Jacen, unlike your uncle, I'm disappointed in you, and I know your parents feel the same way, even though they won't voice it. I know you thought what you had to do needed to be done, but if you think about, what did it all really amount to?" Tahiri's words a year earlier came back to haunt Jacen as soon as Mara said that last part.

Jacen didn't have an answer for Mara, just as he didn't have an answer for Tahiri, but it seemed that Mara wasn't really expecting one anyway as she turned away to reenter the auditorium. "You're welcome to join the rest of the Masters' Council to voice your opinion on how to end this war," Mara said without looking over her shoulder.

Seeing no other way for himself, Jacen joined his aunt.

~o~

The Swarm War came and went in the span of a few months. Only a few million lives had been lost, which, while tragic and enormous, didn't feel all that hefty compared to the previous war with the Yuuzhan Vong. In the end, however, the Killiks had been defeated after Luke Skywalker had managed to confront UnuThul and snap him out of the Colony's hive mind before killing Lomi Plo in combat, disbanding the collective hive mind back into their individual nests. The Chiss agreed to back off to allow the Killiks to return to their areas of space that they had before they assimilated Raynar Thul into their hive mind, and the Ascendancy, also calling off their conflict with the Galactic Alliance, simply retreated back into their own frontier in the Unknown Regions as well.

So where did that leave Jacen now?

The Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya pondered this question within the confines of her asteroid base, the Home, nearby the Bimmiel system. Following the Galactic Civil War, she had been gone into hiding here, spending years trying to find a way of getting back at Luke Skywalker and his allies for what they did to her when she acted as the Emperor's Hand alongside his wife, Mara Jade, and several others. Turning one of his loved ones to the dark side to become a tool that would bring the galaxy into ruin was a good idea, and she thought Jacen Solo to be the ideal candidate.

After all, Jacen had endured much during the Yuuzhan Vong War. He fought in several of its battles, lost his younger brother Anakin during the Mission to Myrkr; he was tortured by Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong for almost a year, and had even experienced oneness with the Force when he finally killed the Vong Supreme Overlord Onimi–an experience he wished to replicate. Lumiya thought that it would be more likely that she could have manipulated Jacen into turning to the dark side, even tell him that she was allied with Vergere on setting him up for this path, and she would have done it all while plotting the next galactic war to convince Jacen that turning to the dark side was what he needed to do; she may have been isolated from the rest of the galaxy, but she was still privy to the news, and was clearly aware of the growing tensions between the Galactic Alliance and a few other worlds, such as Corellia.

Lumiya knew all of this because of Darth Vectivus, the spirit of the ancient Sith who still resided in the structure of the Home, as the asteroid base had once been his home, too. Twelve years earlier, in the closing months of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Vectivus had spoken to Lumiya and told her that Jacen Solo could be manipulated into turning to the dark side because of all that he had experienced during the Yuuzhan Vong War... as well as what he would experience in the five years after the war with the Vong had ended.

Jacen was supposed to have taken a half-decade-long sojourn throughout the galaxy, studying in different Force sects that would radically change his views of the Force in ways that went above and beyond the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. However, after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Lumiya had secretly travelled to all the worlds where these different Force sects resided. She initially thought she was looking in the wrong places, but as time went on, she realized that something went wrong. Very wrong. Jacen had not gone on this sojourn at all; when the Dark Nest Crisis came about, and Jacen had been on the news, playing his part in ending the Swarm War, a headline explaining where Jedi Solo had been in the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong War: He had been on Zonama Sekot all this time. After she learned this, Lumiya returned to the Home and tried to contact the spirit of Vectivus again; he had never responded since.

Why?

For weeks, Lumiya pondered why Vectivus wouldn't tell her how he had been so long. Her pondering came to an end when she decided to give up and say out loud, her voice echoing in the structure of the Home, "What had happened?"

She had lost faith in Vectivus then. Her scheme of revenge against Luke Skywalker was all for naught now. And looking to someone else like Mara Jade Skywalker and Jaina Solo was unlikely, for both women had experienced the power of the dark side of the Force in one way or another, and their experience as Jedi would not allow them to fall again. Certainly trying to coerce Luke, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, would be next to impossible, especially since he himself had once been under the taint of the dark side when Palpatine had returned in his clone body years after he originally died at Endor. Leia would be more suitable, since she wasn't as experienced of a Jedi as the others.

However, she was the sister of Luke Skywalker. Trying to turn her to the dark side would be as impossible as trying to turn him to the dark side.

Even with the rising tensions between the GA and Corellia, what was Lumiya going to do to fulfill such a decades-long dream?


	4. Chapter 4

Of the Forgotten

Chapter 4

39 ABY: Zonama Sekot

The _Jade Shadow_ had set down on the living world in order for Mara Jade Skywalker and Jacen Solo in order for Sekot to determine the fate of Nom Anor, their Yuuzhan Vong prisoner who was believed to be dead by the end of the war against them, but who had really been living on the backwater world of Marfa for the past ten years. Nom Anor had been judged to have his fate determined by Sekot, just as all other surviving Vong in the war had been judged.

After Mara, Jacen, and Nom Anor disembarked the boarding ramp, they were met by Jacen's ex-wife. The two Jedi were aware that Danni was the new Magister of Zonama Sekot when she was the one to speak to them over the comm when they informed her of bringing down Nom Anor.

Through Danni, Sekot determined that Nom Anor, like all other Yuuzhan Vong on Zonama's surface, would live among the rest of his kind in their new society. The Bothans who had managed to track the _Jade Shadow_ through hyperspace had no choice but to be stranded on the world in an isolated area away from any Yuuzhan Vong, on account of the fact that they, of the True Victory Party, wanted nothing more than the total annihilation of the Vong species in their vow of ar'krai.

Sekot was about to relieve Mara and Jacen custody over Nom Anor when Jacen interjected with, "Sekot, wait. Before you take him, I want to speak to Danni."

Sekot closed Danni's eyes and was silent for a moment before she opened them again and said, "Danni does not want to speak to you, Jacen. There is nothing that needs to be said between the two of you, she says."

Jacen opened his mouth again, but Mara laid a hand on his shoulder, wordlessly letting him know to back off from his futile attempts in reconciling with Danni. He sighed, but asked anyway, "Well, can I at least ask you, Sekot, how my daughter, Jorielle, is doing?"

"She is doing well," Sekot answered. "She is learning to use her Force abilities in her own way, and is making much progress in seeing to the Yuuzhan Vong's re-connection to the Force." She looked to the Vong with them. "You will be no exception to this, Nom Anor, although you of all the Yuuzhan Vong may very well be the last to reconnect to the Force, considering that you've only just arrived."

"Oh, what a pity for me," Nom Anor said sarcastically–a statement that had Mara shove him hard in the ribs.

"Come, Nom Anor," Sekot said, finally relieving Mara and Jacen of their charge. The former Prefect of Yuuzhan'tar reluctantly joined Danni's side and walked with her to the Yuuzhan Vong village two klicks away.

Mara gently pulled Jacen by the shoulder back up the ramp of the _Jade Shadow_, where, less than a minute later, it was primed and took off for space.

When the _Shadow_ made its jump into hyperspace, with Mara as the pilot and Jacen as her copilot, she turned to him and asked, "You okay?"

Jacen looked at his aunt and replied with, "There's just no hiding it, is there? My lingering feelings for Danni can be sensed that easily in the Force, huh?"

"Jacen, I don't even need to use the Force to gauge that you still have feelings for Danni," Mara said. "You're just that much of an open book. So I know how badly you want to rejoin her and Jorielle. I do feel sorry for you, my nephew, even though I'm still disappointed in what caused Danni to divorce you."

Jacen sat back in his seat and sighed. "At least I know that Jorielle is doing all right," he said. "I just wish that I could've seen her, too."

Mara patted his hand. "You will, Jacen," she said. "I know it. Whatever she'll turn out to be, whether it'll be the next Magister of Zonama Sekot or a Jedi, you'll see her again."

Jacen raised an eyebrow. "Does the Force tell you that, Aunt Mara?"

"Again, I don't need the Force to know that," she replied, "even if it could tell me so."

~o~

40 ABY

The negotiations between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia at Toryaz Station, located in Kuati space, went relatively smooth as Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon of the GA and Prime Minister Aidel Saxan of the Five Worlds of Corellia worked out a mutually beneficial deal. As a result, the GA called off its occupying fleet from Tralus, agreeing to accept Corellia and is neighboring worlds as trading partners. Saxan, meanwhile, agreed for her government not to sell weapons illegally throughout the galaxy.

The GA put into effect immediate action on all other worlds, like Adumar, who were trying to emulate Corellia's actions of rebellion prior to the Alliance's botched effort of Operation Roundabout. Many illegal weapons sellers throughout these worlds were formally charged and arrested for their crimes by either small peacekeeping fleets of the GA, or by members of the Jedi Order. Corellia did the same with its own Thrackan Sal-Solo, who had once again tried to reactivate Centerpoint Station to use against the Galactic Alliance, allegedly without Prime Minister Saxan's permission.

And more than likely, the Skywalker and Solo families had went back into their happy, cozy lives together, Alema Rar thought, while she had been trapped on the world of Tenupe in the Unknown Regions. For two years, following the end of the Swarm War, she had roamed the jungle planet, trying to find a way to escape, while her body had been horribly deformed for her last fight with Leia Organa Solo; the last time Leia saw Alema, the Twi'lek had been ensnared in the jaws of a vicious spidersloth, and was dragged into the depths of Tenupe's wild.

Alema survived that event by the skin of her teeth, and for the next 48 standard galactic months, she survived all the other horrors of the wild that Tenupe could throw at her. By the end of those two years, she managed to hijack a Chiss rescue shuttle, whose previous occupants she had since properly dispatched with. Alema was curious as to what a Chiss rescue shuttle could have been doing on Tenupe two years after the Swam War, but it didn't matter to her. All that mattered to her was avenging the death of Lomi Plo and the nest of the Gorog, and she would do that by killing the entire Skywalker and Solo clans. Alema wanted to kill Leia in particular for the wounds she gave her in their fights.

Right now, Alema was a stowaway on board a cruise shuttle headed for Coruscant, returning from the beach world of Barga in the Outer Rim. She was hiding in the auxiliary storage closet–if anyone found her in here, if, say, one of the ship's custodians came down here because the primary closet was out of service for some reason, it was no problem to Alema for her to simply dispatch that unlucky custodian.

Apparently, that was the case, she thought, when the door to the closet slid open. Alema pounced up to her feet and ignited her lightsaber, briefly noting that her charge wasn't a custodian, but a darkly veiled woman. The Twi'lek didn't care as she charged in, ready to impale the veiled woman on the hot blade of her lightsaber.

But the veiled woman quickly pivoted out of the way in time, causing Alema to unintentionally rush past thanks to her momentum, and she was easily tripped by her opponent. The Dark Jedi feel to her front, at least having the sense to deactivate her blade in the precious two seconds she had before she hit the floor, so that she wouldn't have hurt herself at least. Alema then turned to her back and jumped to her feet, landing in an odd fashion thanks to the instep Leia gave to her back in their duel aboard the _Admiral Ackbar_, right at the start of the Swarm War.

Alema's opponent backed away from the Twi'lek as the latter tried to slash her opponent in two, and then the veiled woman pulled out a handle from her belt that ignited a laser-like lash; the whip equivalent of a lightsaber, Alema noted.

"Who are you?" Alema asked before charging angrily.

The two woman then duelled in the quiet, nearly-unused hallway of the shuttle that led to the auxiliary storage closet. The veiled woman was evidently skilled with the lightwhip–Alema decided that was what it was called, considering how much it was like a lightsaber, only as, well, a whip instead of a humming blade. The duel lasted for a good half minute before it ended with the veiled woman getting her lightwhip past Alema's defences and slashing the hilt of her weapon in two. Both pieces of Alema's lightsaber clattered to the floor at her feet.

The Twi'lek looked up from the remnants of her lightsaber back up to her opponent in a panic.

"Do you want me to answer your question?" the veiled woman asked. "Or are you going to force me to kill you?"

"Very well," Alema said as the woman opposite her deactivated her lightwhip.

"Alema Rar," the woman said as she put the handle of her lightwhip back in its previous spot on her belt, "my name is Lumiya. And if you want to kill the Skywalkers and the Solos, you must do everything I tell you to. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Alema said. "Go on."

~o~

Coruscant

In the dead of night in Jacen's apartment, he woke up in a startled fit, when he sensed that the World Brain was in trouble. He quickly changed into his clothes, made sure his lightsaber hung at his belt and at the ready, and he rushed out the door.

Minutes later, he was in his hovercar, speeding as quickly as Coruscant's traffic laws demanded of him to where he sensed the World Brain.

By the time Jacen arrived, setting it down near the former Senate Rotunda of the late New Republic, he rushed through one of the structure's secret entrances, which was also the fastest way he knew to the dhuryam.

Once he was inside the lower levels of the Rotunda, where he knew the World Brain would be, he stopped dead in his tracks when, through the swirling fog in the air, he saw the giant dhuryam breathing loudly and hardly. His heart broke watching his friend in such pain.

_Jacen_, he heard the dhuryam's voice speak in his head. _Look out_.

The World Brain's warning did Jacen good, as he managed to jump up and out of the way from a lightwhip attack. He spun through the air, taking out and igniting his lightsaber along the way, before slashing down toward the source of the lightwhip, a darkly-veiled woman. The woman caught the descending blade on the lash of her lightwhip and tugged it firmly out of Jacen's grip.

As the lightsaber flew away from Jacen's hands, the young Jedi Knight at least managed to take advantage of the distraction that the woman had in pulling Jacen's lightsaber away from him. He did this by landing a hard kick into her torso that sent her flying back a few meters and sliding upon the hard yorik coral ground as she landed. But she didn't stop there before she swiftly jumped up to her feet and lashed out her lightwhip again.

Jacen ducked beneath the incoming lash and sent a Force wave to his opponent that had her fly back and crash against the wall behind her, while Jacen just as quickly turned to the direction his lightsaber flew and called it back into his hands. But just as it ignited, he not only took notice of the veiled woman land in a crouch before him, but he was also aware of the activation of a second lightsaber behind him, coinciding with the ignition of his own. Jacen quickly spun around, wary of the woman with the lightwhip behind him, and saw Alema Rar charge in with a fierce battle cry.

Alema swung to decapitate Jacen, but the latter caught the strike on the blade of his weapon, and traded a few more blows against the Dark Jedi before his danger sense warned him of another attack from behind. So he quickly disengaged from Alema and jumped off to the side, and in the aftermath, the lash of the lightwhip headed for the Twi'lek's unguarded form. Alema managed to quickly block the strike that the lash unintentionally had going for her regardless.

"Watch what you're doing with that thing!" Alema called to the veiled woman.

As the Twi'lek exclaimed this, Jacen swung back around to confront the two woman, both of whom were on his broadsides, and where he could see them easily.

"Alema, who's your friend?" Jacen asked.

"I am Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith," the woman introduced herself in Alema's place. "And whether it is I or Alema Rar who kills you this day, Jedi Solo, both our grievances with your family will begin their fulfilment with your death." And with that, Lumiya said no more as she once again lashed out the glow of her lightwhip for Jacen while Alema simultaneously charged.

Jacen decided to engage Alema first, so he ducked out of the way of the lightwhip and once again engaged Alema in lightsaber combat. He used the Dark Jedi's form to his advantage, subtly manuevering her amidst the heat of combat to block out any chance Lumiya had of attacking him with her own weapon.

"Move out of the way, Alema!" Lumiya called to her Twi'lek ally as she and Jacen duelled. "I don't have an opening to strike him down!"

Alema caught one of Jacen's attacking blows and cancelled it out in a swift parry before kicking her opponent in the abdomen, sending him five meters back before calling back to Lumiya, without turning to her, of course, "I thought you said it didn't matter which one of us killed him!" Alema that charged for Jacen's downed form and swung her lightsaber forward to cut off his legs by the knees.

But Jacen managed to roll back over his shoulder in time, springing up to his full height in a crouch, and once again engaged Alema in lightsaber combat. However, despite the fact that Jacen was the more experienced Jedi, and arguably a better swordsman than his Twi'lek opponent, Alema's dark side-fuelled rage was what was driving her to apparently best Jacen in this duel as she backed him up to a wall behind him. As that happened, Jacen managed to realize that he would forced to flip over Alema, and possibly take her down with a backward stab through her gut. But in the off chance that failed, he thought, he would not only have the Twi'lek behind him to contend with, but also Lumiya and her deadly lightwhip in front of him.

So, seeing no other choice, he decided to jump over Alema after all, twirling through the air in a graceful, acrobatic flip, and came down in a crouch while he also stabbed back to hopefully impale Alema. Unfortunately for him, the Dark Jedi must've been expecting that move, because Jacen, without looking behind to face his opponent, felt their blades interlock just as he watched Lumiya's lightwhip lash out of him. In order to avoid being rendered in two by that glowing whip, he managed to quickly disengage his blade from Alema's and jump forward, the whip barely grazing his hair and the clothing on his back as he landed roughly on the yorik coral ground.

After the lightwhip passed harmlessly overhead, he quickly pushed himself back to his feet and twirled around to face Alema's onslaught once again, ready to dodge any attack made by that lightwhip when his danger sense warned him again. He managed to block off two of Alema's lightsaber blows before his danger sense warned him to drop to his belly instantly, which he did, and Alema took a quick step back to avoid the lightwhip before swinging her lightsaber down to cleave Jacen in half. But he managed to block off that strike before he used his free hand to push himself back up to his feet that allowed him to kick Alema right in the kneecap.

The Dark Jedi collapsed to her knee just as Jacen flipped back and twirled through the air to face Lumiya again. The lightwhip came at his blade, probably to tug it out his grasp like before, but Jacen knew what to expect, and by the time the whip wrapped around his blade again, he yanked hard with both hands, and it was the lightwhip that flew out of Lumiya's hands this time. But the Dark Lady of the Sith rolled out of the way from the incoming attack of the downswing of Jacen's lightsaber. The humming blade struck near-impenetrable yorik coral while Lumiya landed in a crouch and used the Force to call the handle of her deactivated lightwhip back into her hand.

While she did this, Jacen rushed her without a second's waste after he landed, and was fully aware of Alema flying towards him, despite her wounded knee, on a trajectory that promised that they would meet. So, when they did, Jacen fully stopped in his tracks and turned to the Twi'lek Dark Jedi, blocking her attack with his blade, but his blue-skinned opponent's forward momentum drove him back two meters. He collapsed on his back just as the handle of Lumiya's lightwhip smacked into her hand and the lash was out and glowing again, promising Jacen death just as Alema herself did.

Now on his back, Jacen instinctively lifted up his lightsaber and caught the simultaneous attacks made by Lumiya's lightwhip and Alema's blade. But both women countered that move as Lumiya yanked Jacen's lightsaber out of his hand again, and Alema just kicked his (temporarily) former weapon hand in the second's aftermath of Lumiya pulling it out of his hand once more. However, Jacen didn't skip a beat, and he rolled himself to his side so that he could trip Alema down onto her back before flipping backwards a few meters to get a safe distance between himself and the lightwhip.

As Lumiya reeled her lightwhip for another attack, one of the World Brain's tentacles behind her rocketed for her body. She twirled around to face the attack, but she was too late as it smacked her head-on and sent her flying back, though she didn't lose the grip on her lightwhip this time. But the attack wasn't just meant to knock Lumiya off her feet, Jacen quickly saw, as that tentacle also contained the handle of Jacen's lightsaber. After Lumiya had been punched out by the tentacle, the deactivated lightsaber it held flung toward Jacen.

And not a moment too soon, as Alema had just leapt to her feet and was charging Jacen, her lightsaber aimed for his heart in a threatening impale. Jacen moved out of the way of that stab and, even though he was weaponless at the moment, he managed to get past the Dark Jedi's defences, grabbed both her arms, locked them in place with his firm grasp, and then head-butted Alema right in the teeth. He shoved her down to her back just as the lightsaber still flew towards him, its momentum unhindered so far. Jacen quickly relieved his weapon of any further reliance of normal physics as he used the Force to call it to his hand and just as quickly activate it.

He then swung the blade down for Alema's form, but she blocked it, twirled their blades around in a brief lock, and then aimed a punch with her free hand for Jacen's groin. The Jedi Knight was too slow to avoid the attack and had the wind knocked out of him in one of the most unbearable pains a man could suffer short of dismemberment or having any of his innards roughly removed. Despite his pain, he still had the sense to quickly step back from Alema so that he had slightly more leeway trying to nurse his pain before he would have to continue fighting for his life.

Jacen received perhaps about two seconds of that before Alema had jumped up and charged again. He blocked off the attack once more, but in Alema's riposte, she managed to get past her opponent's defences, ducked beneath his attempted decapitating strike, and then grazed her lightsaber against his thigh. He went down on his side in a painful heap, his lightsaber deactivating and rolling out of his hands in the process, and she looked down upon him with a maniac grin as she playfully twirled her own blade around before readying it to finally end Jacen's life.

But in spite of the searing pain in his leg, Jacen used one of his hands to emit the Force against Alema's blade, stopping it from fully descending upon its target. Jacen then quickly used his other hand to push himself up, his Force-using hand grasping against both of Alema's as they futilely tried to press down against her suspended weapon. Jacen's forward momentum caused the blade to swing back against its owner and cleave her in two down the middle.

As Alema literally fell apart, Jacen leaned heavily on his good leg, and appeared too wounded and helpless to Lumiya as she pressed herself to her feet, casually activated her lightwhip, and lashed it out to her Jedi opponent. The World Brain didn't have any energy left to help its friend like it did before when it had knocked the Dark Lady off her feet, so Jacen was on his own this time.

But that was no problem for him. As the lightwhip flung toward him, he simultaneously used the Force to reach out to his own lightsaber, activate it, and then throw its activated blade toward Lumiya like an arrow. It took both the lightsaber and the lightwhip to reach for their respective targets, but only one actually made to hit it true.

As Jacen collapsed, so did Lumiya. For the former, the lightwhip lashed him against the shoulder, sending him down onto his back, now having a burn wound on his arm as well as his leg. For Lumiya, it took Jacen's blade the fraction of a second to impale through for torso, causing her to misdirect the aim of her own weapon to hit Jacen only in the shoulder as she did. In the midst of his collapse, Jacen had lost control of his lightsaber as well and it deactivated once it was no longer in his Force grip. But that didn't matter now that Lumiya was dead.

Jacen laid there on the hard yorik coral floor for a few moments, trying to compose himself as best he could in spite of the searing pain his arm and leg, before he forcefully pushed himself up to his feet and limped over to the dying World Brain. Once he was at the rim of the basin that the dhuryam was floating in, the Jedi collapsed on his belly, breathing as hard because of his injuries just as his Vongformed friend was.

_What happened to you?_ Jacen telepathically asked it.

_Poison dart_, the dhuryam answered. _From the Twi'lek_.

_I'm sorry I couldn't help you, my friend_, Jacen said.

_No need to apologize. You at least managed to avenge me. Thank you, Jacen. For everything_.

And with that, the World Brain was no more.

Jacen lowered his head along the rim of the basin and sobbed uncontrollably.


	5. Epilogue

Of the Forgotten

Epilogue

When Tenel Ka first showed Jacen their baby daughter Allana prior to the Swarm War, they had been instantly attacked by Gorog assassins. The Jedi had been successful in killing all of the assassins, and Jacen and Tenel Ka had both determined that it was Ta'a Chume who had sent them. Jacen interrogated Ta'a Chume herself about this, and while she didn't directly confess, it was quite clear that she had sent the Gorog in to kill the baby for some unknown reason.

Jacen let the old woman off on this by reminding her that her granddaughter was still the Hapan Queen Mother, and she could do anything to her, regardless of Ta'a Chume's own supporters. Ta'a Chume, in turn, reminded Jacen outright that she knew who the infant's father was, and threatened to not only tell all the Consortium, but would have the child targeted again. Jacen returned that with the fact that even without the baby's great-grandmother targeting her for death, Allana would still be marked for death by others in the Consortium, and that Tenel Ka by herself could defend her own daughter from whatever came her way.

Five years after that encounter between Jacen and Ta'a Chume, the latter had finally succumbed to her old age. And in her will, she had outright revealed that Jacen was Allana's father. Word spread quickly throughout the Hapes Consortium, and then poured out to the rest of the galaxy. In the days that followed Ta'a Chume's death, Jacen had been constantly harassed by the media, whose overall collective question was: "How could a Jedi like you be so irresponsible?"

And that was what prompted him, a year after the World Brain's death, to step into Grand Master Skywalker's office, lay down his lightsaber on his uncle's desk, and say, "Master Skywalker, I'm here to formally resign from the Jedi Order."

In spite of his reluctance, Luke had allowed Jacen to go, though he let the younger man take his lightsaber with him. Luke's question to Jacen before he stepped out of his office was, "Where will you go from here, Jacen?"

Jacen had stopped at the door and turned back to his uncle. "I have a responsibility to fulfill," he said, and said no more as he left.

Two days after that, having taken a public shuttle to Hapes, in spite of his infamy for spawning Tenel Ka's child, he landed on the planet and met up with the Queen Mother herself and their redheaded daughter. However, they were forced to do it amidst an open field outside the palace, where they were surrounded by Hapan paparazzi.

It was embarrassing to say the least.

From then on, Jacen had been forever bound by Tenel Ka, the woman who ruined his life with his true love, Danni Quee, through a forced marriage that took place a week later. All those who attended, including his parents, his sister, his friends, felt just as embarrassed by Jacen's circumstances as he was.

And when he took that forced kiss with Tenel Ka, he knew he could never be with Danni ever again.

The End.


End file.
